A Day in the Life of a Fashion Blogger – 2019 Edition

H&M trench (similar)
J. Crew sweater
Vintage jeans (via mom) (similar)
Mango shoes
Sezane handbag (similar)
& Other Stories sunglasses
Zara belt (similar)
Hermine Hold scarf (c/o)
Celine necklace (similar)
Delphine Pariente ring (similar)
Madewell rings
Maris Pearl Co. earrings (c/o)
Location: The Manitoba Legislature – Winnipeg, Manitoba

A little more than three years ago, I wrote a post entitled A Day in the Life of a Fashion Blogger. To this day, it remains one of my most read posts, undoubtedly because it shed some light on the very unglamourous reality of running a blog while also maintaining a full-time day job. A lot of what I wrote about my daily life at that time still holds true – but a lot has also changed in three years, both in my life and in the world of fashion blogging. So it seems only natural to revisit what my daily life really looks like – because I suspect, even three years down the road, it’s quite a bit different than you might expect. This is a day in the life of a fashion blogger, the 2019 edition.

5:45 am – The alarm goes off. Yes, I get up even earlier now. My work hours are a lot less predictable than they used to be; some days, my meetings start at 7:30 am. Most days, I need to be online by 7:40 am, anyway. The extra half hour makes a big difference in how much I can get done before the workday begins. I still relish spending fifteen minutes in bed scrolling instagram and checking my blog emails.

6:00 am – It’s that time. I grudgingly throw off the delightfully warm covers and drag myself out of bed. My workout clothes are ready and waiting on my dresser. I wash my face, brush my teeth and do my brief morning skincare routine before my workout. How much time I spend on it varies – I still do a combination of body weight exercises, free weights and yoga, which takes a minimum of 45 minutes.

7:15 am – Breakfast. Which these days is a dismal bowl of applesauce that I usually don’t finish eating until 10 am. I pair it with a litre of water before starting my daily caffeine intake.

7:35 am – On a good day, I’ve spent half an hour scheduling social media posts for my blog by this point, and it’s time to turn on my work computer. Some days, I live dangerously and keep up the blog work until 7:40 am. I will spend the next twenty minutes wandering between my office and my kitchen, alternately finishing my water, entering various passwords to get my computer going, reviewing my emails and making tea.

7:47 am – Computer is on. Start responding to emails while waiting for water to boil for tea. Usually get distracted and miss hearing kettle boil the first time. I’m an Operations Manager now, with eight staff members across the country, working from 6 am to 6 pm my time. That means people need to contact me twelve hours a day and, because I want to be a good boss, I try to be available to them as much as possible.

8:02 am – Morning text to Topher to check in on how he is. We are both so busy now that our daily texts have diminished significantly – I might not chat with him again until 11 am or, worse, the afternoon.

9:00 am – On my busiest day, which is, well, most days, meetings start at this time and continue until 3:30 pm. I actually schedule my lunch hour in my Outlook calendar, because if I don’t, I’m not getting a lunch break – it’s that simple. I meet with clients, colleagues and my staff throughout the day, mostly by teleconference.

11:00 am – Time for a tea refill, and a granola bar. I invariably eat at my desk, so my meals and snacks need to be portable.

12:00 pm – If I’m lucky, this is when my lunch break is scheduled, which means it’s time for cardio. I still do Jillian Michaels 30-day shred videos from Monday to Friday, working up to level three as the week progresses, and then back down again. (All of these healthy habits go out the window if I’m travelling for work, which I do almost every second week.)

12:32 pm – Back to reality. I give myself the remaining 28 minutes of the time I’ve blocked off for lunch to respond to all my unanswered emails from the morning. There is never a shortage of them, it seems. At some point in this time, I will marvel that a day in the life of a fashion blogger, which I technically am, involves very little of anything fashion-related.

2:00 pm – If I have five minutes to get up from my desk, this is usually when I make lunch. Lunch is a relative term, of course – I mostly eat yogurt with berries and a quinoa-based cereal. It’s simple, I don’t have time to fuss and considering the minimal effort required, it has a surprising amount of protein.

4:00 pm – Reality is, my work day goes on. I’ve found that in my current job, I get a large influx of work between three and four o’clock. But for the sake of my sanity, I take a break from my laptop around this time to get outside and go for a run… knowing I’ll be back at work when I come back in.

4:47 pm – Back to the computer. Since some of my team will still be working for another hour, I still have work to do. My clients are all across the country, as well, so work just keeps coming. In general, I keep at it until…

5:45 pm – Time to make dinner. It’s a good thing Ian both can cook and has time to do it. If he didn’t, I’d starve. He usually makes one big pot of something at the start of the week, and I reheat it with rice all week long. I don’t really care if my food is exciting, or even different, as long as it’s easy to make.

7:00 pm – Dinner is my time to decompress, so I take my time with it, and usually finish eating around seven. I admittedly spend a lot less time on my blog these days. My content creation happens mostly on weekends, as does preparing posts. I do write my posts during the week, so if I have one scheduled for the next day, this is when I write it. Otherwise, I use this time to catch up on a bit of reading. Books really help me to decompress from my long work days.

8:00 pm – Netflix and snack time. This is my favourite ritual, and my reward for making it through another day. At this time, I put an English muffin in the toaster and put the kettle on for one last cup of tea. I eat my toast with peanut butter and a banana while watching Netflix. We’re slowly, so painfully slowly, making our way through Lucifer at the moment. On nights when I just want to laugh, we’ll put on old episodes of Last Week Tonight instead.

8:10 pm – Text Topher while eating my toast and drinking my tea. There is finally time for it now.

8:37 pm – Check my Instagram planning app to make sure I have a post ready for tomorrow. Marvel at how, if it weren’t for apps that allow scheduled posting, there is no way I could still maintain my blog.

9:30 pm – Time to start thinking about going to bed.

9:47 pm – Actually get off the couch and head for the bathroom. Night time skincare takes a bit longer and, if I’m honest, I tend to dawdle.

10:02 pm – Crawl into bed, totally exhausted. In reality, I usually crawl onto the bed and hope Ian will tuck me in when he is ready to go to sleep.

10:13 pm – Lights out. It will be 5:45 am again before I know it.

That is an absolutely honest look at a day in the life of a fashion blogger – as much as I am one at this point. Scheduled posting makes so many things possible that weren’t possible before. But reality is, I do a lot less than I used to. I read blogs but rarely leave comments. I scroll Instagram but rarely interact with my favourite influencers. This is what my real life looks like – it doesn’t sound very exciting when I write it all out but, if nothing else, it’s the truth. And it’s proof that no matter what you see on Instagram, there is a lot more going on for people behind the scenes. Most of it isn’t very photogenic. C’est la vie. We all do what we have to do. A day in the life of a fashion blogger looks different for every blogger. This is just about me.

Now I’m curious – what does a day in your life look like? Tell me in the comments!